This is interesting considering the multiple components as their first entry into the space. The 12-month program includes:

Team Sponsorship: I think Evil Geniuses is a great team selection (although claiming “world’s best video game team” is a bit much). Not only did they take home the largest eSports prize ever at $6.6M by winning The International 2015 but also won the first season of the Halo Championship Series. The integration of Comcast’s Pro-Gigabit service and Xfinity X1 video service into their training facilities is a natural fit. Non-endemic brand sponsors for teams are rare and there are few popular US based eSports teams left that don’t have one. What’s that mean?If I’m those team owners, my price just went up.

Events: Being with your audience and being able to showcase your offering are a great way to activate at eSports events. IEM Oakland, PAX Prime, and the ESL CS:GO League should draw decent crowds.

Games: This is the one puzzling aspect for me. More than likely to due tothe ESL relationship but Halo Championship Series doesn’t draw much viewership — last Thursday night’s event was at 6,000 viewers when I checked. In a case of unfortunate timing, the day before the announcement which included Heroes of the Storm, Yahoo released an in depth report on it’s eSports problem and team’s dropping out.

Looking into this further, I was surprised by the overall lack of involvement by Telco/Broadband companies as their product is 100% suited for this audience: Fast-internet connections for playing/watching Gaming coupled with mobile subscriptions.